


Day 26: Abandoned

by evilwriter37



Series: Whumptober 2019 [26]
Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Child Abandonment, Gen, Heather!whump, Whump, mentions of child birth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 20:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21185663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilwriter37/pseuds/evilwriter37
Summary: Heather gives birth to a child, but doesn't want it.





	Day 26: Abandoned

The snow was cold around Heather’s ankles, and the soft white continued falling from the darkened indigo sky. The weather was perfect for this. She couldn’t stay away from her shelter long though, lest the smell of the blood between her thighs drew wild animals to her and the bundle she carried.

She thought she’d been careful. She’d tried to be, really. This wouldn’t have happened had she just stayed away from people, but sometimes it had been for money and other times it had just been for comfort, to feel another human being there with her, to break the loneliness.

Either by money or comfort, it had resulted in a baby. She had known next to nothing about pregnancy, hadn’t suspected it until she began to change in size. She’d drunken nutmeg ground up into water to try to get rid of it, but that had just left her in a daze for three days with the baby still in her. She’d gone to a town, to a medicine woman, and her potion hadn’t worked either. Heather had given birth a mere hour ago, and the baby appeared healthy, had wailed for her milk that her breasts wept but she refused to give. 

She’d been angry at the pregnancy, angry at herself, angry at the baby. How could she have been so stupid? It wasn’t fear that there was this thing leeching her life when she was barely getting by on her own.

And now the baby had come, and she knew just what to do. Windshear had looked at her oddly as she’d left the shelter with the baby, and now the dragon was following her. Heather didn’t know what to tell her, didn’t know how to explain this to her.

Then, Heather stopped. She’d found a baby dragon, had nursed it back to health, had let it share her food and her warmth.

She looked down at the baby in her arms. No. She couldn’t do the same with this. It was different. This would leave her vulnerable, and she didn’t even know who the father was. Heather could have no distractions while searching for Dagur, certainly not one as big as a baby. Being pregnant the past months had made her excursions harder, until she had become so big that she couldn’t fly, couldn’t do much of anything. 

Heather didn’t need this baby. Heather didn’t  _ want  _ this baby. But… maybe abandoning it in the snow was too much. 

No, Heather couldn’t leave this baby to die. She wouldn’t keep it though.

She turned, began walking in the direction she knew town was, and Windshear made a sound at her.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” she told her, like she understood. Her dragon was glad that she’d changed her mind.

Heather huddled the baby up against her breast as she walked, and it must have found a nipple, because now it was suckling. The action had Heather stopping, looking down at the baby. She didn’t try to stop it from eating, gained a look of wonder on her face. This was hers. Her body had made and carried it for nine months, and it was hers.

Heather wiped frozen tears away. But this couldn’t be hers. It would just get in the way of everything she was trying to do. There was no way she could go after Dagur and raise a baby at the same time.

“Someone nice will find you,” Heather promised… hoped. She sniffled, wiped more tears away, then continued on towards the town.

There was no one about given how late it was, but Heather was sure someone would find the baby soon enough if she left it on a doorstep. She didn’t know who though, so she went to the house of the medicine woman.

She looked down at the baby once more. Now her throat ached and her chest hurt. This was  _ hers. _

But it couldn’t be hers. It just couldn’t be.

Tears on her face, Heather pulled the baby from her nipple. It started crying almost instantly, and the sound broke her heart. It was already broken into a million pieces, but this sound had shattered it a little more.

Steeling herself, swallowing past sobs, Heather placed the baby down on the doorstep. She didn’t leave though, not yet, wanted to make sure that the old woman would come out and find it. She went behind a wall of the house, breathing hard. She wished she had Windshear with her, but the dragon had gone back to the shelter once she saw that she was heading into town.

It only took a few minutes of crying for the baby to be discovered. Heather watched as the door opened and light spilled out over the bundle. Then she heard a voice shushing the baby, saw a shadow take it into their arms, and then the door closed and the light was gone. Heather could breathe again. 

  
  


Heather collapsed once she got back to her shelter, completely drained from birth and what she’d just done. Windshear came over to her, rubbed her face against hers.

“Hey, Windshear.” Her voice broke, a sob coming free though she’d tried hard to keep them down.

It didn’t matter though. Her dragon had seen all her moments of weakness before, and still didn’t judge her. So, Heather clung to her neck and cried.


End file.
